protector84
Regular Member
imported post
Looks like Hank is back with his usual and monotonous arm-chair quarterbacking or trolling to be more accurate.
As to the actual event that occurred, obviously none of us were there but it sounds like you handled it well. A few points to examine here, nonetheless:
1. The individual was suspicious but had not yet assaulted or attempted to assault you here. Theoretically, he could have had the baseball bat for any number of reasons and simply wanted to ask you for a cigarette. However, his actions were incredibly suspicious giving you probable cause to confront him about his behavior. I would have therefore done basically the same thing. I would have made the gun visible (OC) but not yet pointed it at him and maybe have taken a few steps back. I probably would have rephrased thequestion of "Are you sure you want to do this?" to "Hold it right there! What are you doing?" If at that point the individual kept approaching, I would have pointed the gun at him and followed with more serious commands such as "Stop or I'll shoot." OCing a baseball bat may be as legal as OCing a gun in your hand but is extremely suspicious and enough to make people feel threatened and respond accordingly.
2. In the case of not being able to get a proper description, I may have also not reported it to the police. You have the Constitutional rights not to tell the authorities anything. The problem with calling the police in some cases is they have you but not them or in the case if both of you reported it, then it now becomes word against word. Had you have gotten a good description, it may have then been a good idea reporting it. However, in your case calling them may have just opened another can of worms resulting in at minimum a lengthly interrogation or at worst a trip to jail.
3. To answer Hank's ridiculous comments, it is very common for anyone not to get a good description of an attacker. There is scientific research behind the effects of adrenaline on the human body and mind. When someone is in "fight or flight" mode they aren't concerned about descriptive features of an attacker other than what is relevant to fighting or fleeing from them. Your brain is only focused on stopping them and therefore it is only long after the situation is over that you then realize that you "should have" made better mental notes of the person. There is a reason for this. If a person is coming at you with a baseball bat and your brain is taking notes of the character's height/weight, age, race, and clothing then that is time spent not running away or preparing to fight them which could cost youyour life. Why I need to explain this is beyond me as the rest of us understand this but I put it here in the hopes that the other individual here will finally "get it."
Looks like Hank is back with his usual and monotonous arm-chair quarterbacking or trolling to be more accurate.
As to the actual event that occurred, obviously none of us were there but it sounds like you handled it well. A few points to examine here, nonetheless:
1. The individual was suspicious but had not yet assaulted or attempted to assault you here. Theoretically, he could have had the baseball bat for any number of reasons and simply wanted to ask you for a cigarette. However, his actions were incredibly suspicious giving you probable cause to confront him about his behavior. I would have therefore done basically the same thing. I would have made the gun visible (OC) but not yet pointed it at him and maybe have taken a few steps back. I probably would have rephrased thequestion of "Are you sure you want to do this?" to "Hold it right there! What are you doing?" If at that point the individual kept approaching, I would have pointed the gun at him and followed with more serious commands such as "Stop or I'll shoot." OCing a baseball bat may be as legal as OCing a gun in your hand but is extremely suspicious and enough to make people feel threatened and respond accordingly.
2. In the case of not being able to get a proper description, I may have also not reported it to the police. You have the Constitutional rights not to tell the authorities anything. The problem with calling the police in some cases is they have you but not them or in the case if both of you reported it, then it now becomes word against word. Had you have gotten a good description, it may have then been a good idea reporting it. However, in your case calling them may have just opened another can of worms resulting in at minimum a lengthly interrogation or at worst a trip to jail.
3. To answer Hank's ridiculous comments, it is very common for anyone not to get a good description of an attacker. There is scientific research behind the effects of adrenaline on the human body and mind. When someone is in "fight or flight" mode they aren't concerned about descriptive features of an attacker other than what is relevant to fighting or fleeing from them. Your brain is only focused on stopping them and therefore it is only long after the situation is over that you then realize that you "should have" made better mental notes of the person. There is a reason for this. If a person is coming at you with a baseball bat and your brain is taking notes of the character's height/weight, age, race, and clothing then that is time spent not running away or preparing to fight them which could cost youyour life. Why I need to explain this is beyond me as the rest of us understand this but I put it here in the hopes that the other individual here will finally "get it."
